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Integrating Virtual Instruments into Orchestral Music: Lessons from Film Scoring

As we embark on an exciting journey with the Augustana Orchestra, our venture into the realm of virtual instruments is inspired by the transformative approaches seen in film scoring. This exploration, undertaken with research assistant Gilbert DeWitte, class of 2024, aims to weave the richness of virtual instruments into our traditional orchestral fabric, drawing upon the innovative practices of…

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$1M Estate Gift for the Augustana School of Music

Augustana University alumn and composer, Kyle Pederson, and his with Katie pledged a $1M estate gift for the School of Music. “I love the entrepreneurial spirit in the School of Music. Faculty and staff are really thinking about how best to prepare students given how music is made and shared in this new digital world. It just makes sense to give back to the community, places and institutions…

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Augustana Choir Centennial Celebration

A weekend celebration with four world premiers, the induction of the first conductor emeritus of the Augustana Choir, the dedication of the Thoen Choral Room, and a century of memories and friendships. Read more here.

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Endowment Reinvigorates the J. Earl Lee Piano Festival

For more than a decade, Augustana has hosted a piano festival held in honor of Dr. J. Earl Lee and his wife, Dr. Clara Lee ‘39, professors emeriti of music and speech. The festival, which presents unique opportunities for learning, listening and participation for high school music teachers and students, has been funded by the generous and longstanding estate gifts of Karl O. Lee and his mother,…

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Middle School Choral Festival

Augustana University’s School of Music is excited to partner with the Promising Futures Fund to host the Middle School Choral Festival at 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 23, in the Mary W. Sommervold Hall at the Washington Pavilion. The Ben Reifel, George McGovern and Whittier Middle Schools choirs will join Augustana choirs for a day of team building and music making. The choirs will be guest conducted…

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The Bach Initiative

My first professional conducting appointment was with the Air Force Strings, part of The US Air Force Band and Orchestra in Washington, DC.

That string orchestra is comprised of some of the nation’s finest players, graduating from institutions like Juilliard, Curtis, the Colburn Schooland other leading music schools. They are dynamite players, and their work when I was there was 75% as…

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Practicing Tips for the Aspiring Musician

Practicing Tips for the Aspiring Musician

Vince Lombardi is attributed with saying, “Practice doesn’t make perfect.  Perfect practice makes perfect.”  Everybody knows that we need to practice to get better, but how should one practice?    (more…)

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Score Reading at the Piano - A Graduated Method

Score Reading at the Piano – A Graduated Method

Have you ever seen a conductor sit at the piano and play fluently off an open score?  It’s impressive, for sure, but wouldn’t it be invaluable for your own studying purposes to be able to do that too? (more…)

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A guide to score preparation

A guide to score preparation

One of the questions I asked most frequently in the beginning of my conducting study was, “How do I study a score?”  I never got a straight answer (because there isn’t one), and my question morphed into many more: What edition of the score should I buy? Is it OK to listen to recordings? How do I mark a score? Should I do a full Roman numeral analysis? Bowings? “Hier ist das Zeitmaß durch die…

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Tips for Making a Great Conducting Video

Tips for Making a Great Conducting Video

Whether you’re applying for a conducting position with a professional ensemble, a graduate program or a summer festival you’re going to need to produce a high-quality video recording.  You can Google “how to make a good conducting video” but the results are…well, you know, not that helpful. Let’s start with the end goal:  You need 20-30 minutes of total footage, at least 10-15 minutes of…

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Tuplets: One is never enough...

Tuplets: One is never enough…

Do you remember the first time you encountered a quintuplet?  I was practicing a solo in high school that was far too difficult for me, and I encountered this passage: I remember feeling so proud of myself, wiggling my fingers and aiming for the next beat.  “Wow – listen to all those notes I just played…sort of…” Fast forward almost twenty years: I found myself working with a student orchestra on…

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The Conductor's Corner

The Conductor’s Corner

So you want to be a conductor?  You’re crazy – stop now, and go on enjoying your life.  Psshh, conducting…why would you want to do that? Oh, you’re still here?  Good for you.  You must love music as much as life, itself.  You’ve probably played under the batons of great conductors and been inspired by their musicianship, imagination, aural acuity and artistic vision.  Or perhaps you’ve played…

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https://soundcloud.com/peter-folliard/pictures-at-an-exhibition

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Pete’s DMA Lecture Recital A milestone in the life of any DMA student - the lecture recital.  This combines everything I love about being a musician: engaging with great music, greater people, having the opportunity to teach and learn and using technology to bring it all together.

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Pictures at an Exhibition - Admiring a Masterpiece from Multiple Angles

Pictures at an Exhibition – Admiring a Masterpiece from Multiple Angles

Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (1874) for solo piano is widely known to audiences through Ravel’s orchestration, commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky in 1922. Ravel’s version is, however, only one of 38 published orchestrations for the symphony orchestra (and one of over 300 hundred arrangements for various ensembles). In a lecture recital I will discuss the complicated history of…

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New Album released by Off Bass Brass - Tubacus Galacticus

New Album released by Off Bass Brass – Tubacus Galacticus

My favorite part about being a musician is being surrounded by some of the most wonderful, creative and thoughtful people on the planet.  Tubacus Galacticus shatters the ‘norm’ of what one would expect from a tuba-euphonium quartet, and pushes the ceiling higher on what we can expect as chamber music moves forward in the 21st century. From their inception in 2004, Off Bass Brass has taken the…

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Concerto for Viola - American Premiere

Concerto for Viola – American Premiere

French composer Nicolas Bacri (b. 1961) is no stranger to Eastman, nor Eastman’s world-renown viola studio. In 2012, Eastman hosted the International Viola Congress and performed Bacri’s music. Bacri was in attendance, and was so impressed with what he heard that he approached The Eastman Viola Ensemble and asked if they would be…

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